Sunday Links: Activist "lynching," erasing disability stories, & more

by Abaki Beck

Happy June! POC Online Classroom’s Sunday Links connects you to important news, resources, and stories you may have missed this week that focus on the lives, politics, and cultural production of marginalized peoples.

Politics of the Week:

Jasmine Richards, a Black Lives Matter activist, was convicted of “felony lynching” for trying to free another black woman from police custody. The law was originally put into place to prevent white mobs from kidnapping black people from police custody for the purpose of hanging. Richards’ lawyer says that she is the first black woman to be charged with lynching.

POC Reading of the Week:

“Q&A” by Alok Vaid-Menon, a beautifully written essay is about Alok’s experiences with misgendering and other violences towards non-binary people. It also raises important questions: from whom do queer people seek recognition and why? Why is being “recognized” by the government - or someone in power - a measure of success of the movement?

Advocate of the Week:

Kimberle Crenshaw, who coined the term “intersectionality” in the 1980s, is working to make black women killed by police violence known and remembered through the campaign #SayHerName. Much mass media attention is focused on black men who have died by police violence, while even “well informed” people may have never heard of the many black women who have also died.

Pop Culture of the Week:

Since the film Me Before You was released, it has received significant backlash from the disability justice community and advocates. The story centers around a disabled man who chooses euthanasia over life with a disability. Though marketed as “romantic,” advocates are arguing the film is offensive and ableist and inspired campaigns #MeBeforeEuthanasia and #MeBeforeAbleism.

Video of the Week:

The newest video from I Sing. You Dance., a young Yup’ik singer and drummer from Alaska.

Website of the Week:

Yes! Magazine, a solutions-focused social justice magazine focusing on the environment, racism, poverty, and more.